Organ donation system needs better evaluation.

• Position: Transplants - Health care United States

More than 80,000 people are anxiously waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in the U.S., but many of their needs will never be met. Seventeen individuals die every day waiting for a transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. As a result of the tremendous unfilled need, Richard Hirth, associate professor of health management and policy at the School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, believes that the organ procurement system requires closer monitoring. "The main thing we need to do to get more organs is to do a better job of identifying donors and getting their consent." These are duties of Federally designated organ procurement organizations.

The primary problem, as Hirth sees it, is that "The organizations responsible for organ procurement have escaped any meaningful performance evaluation." In 1984, the National Organ Transplant Act set up a system of nonprofit organ procurement organizations, funded through cost-based reimbursement, with a geographic territory to serve without competition. These organizations were charged with educating the public about organ donation...